sixteenmo

[siks-teen-moh]

noun

plural

sixteenmos 

1. Also called sextodecimo. a book size (about 4×6 inches; 10×15 centimeters) determined by printing on sheets folded to form 16 leaves or 32 pages.

2. a book of this size. 16mo, 16°

adjective

1. printed, folded, or bound in sixteenmo; sextodecimo.

sixteenmo

/ ˈsɪksˈtiːnməʊ /

noun

1. Also called: sextodecimo. Often written: 16mo.  16°. a book size resulting from folding a sheet of paper into 16 leaves or 32 pages, each one sixteenth the size of the sheet

2. a book of this size

Word History and Origins

Origin of sixteenmo¹

First recorded in 1840–50; sixteen + -mo

Example Sentences

Other sizes occasionally used are called “sixteenmo” or “sextodecimo,” “eighteenmo” or “octodecimo,” etc.

Read more on Project Gutenberg

The fineness of the new type, as has been suggested, called for a smaller size of book, which was also favored by considerations of economy and convenience; and so Aldus made up his sheets in a form which the fold compels us to call octavo, but which to-day would be called sixteenmo.

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Books and their Makers during the Middle Ages": "The Elzevirs, following the example set a century and a half earlier by Aldus, but since that time very generally lost sight of by the later publishers, initiated a number of series of books in small and convenient forms, twelvemo and sixteenmo, which were offered to book buyers at prices considerably lower than those they had been in the habit of paying for similar material printed in folio, quarto, or octavo....

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The printed page is relatively wide, and the whole effect of the book is that of a tiny quarto, though in reality the dimensions are those of a rather small sixteenmo of normal proportions.

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The mention of any size, folio, quarto, octavo, twelvemo, sixteenmo, calls up at once a distinct mental picture of an ideal book for each dimension, and the series is marked by a decreasing thickness of paper and size of type as it progresses downward from the folio.

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